Thanks doug, Oh no, don't worry. I don't have any concern about figuring out how to program that. In fact, I'm pretty sure I already did it at some time or other. I was just raising a flag, in case there was some clever thing in jaws that would obviate the need for me to recreate this, such as the ability to define what defines a focus rectangle. I'll try the custom highlight thing, as Jackie suggested, and see if it is unique enough to do it. I'm not sure of the scope of the search used for that. But, barring that, I'm off to see what can be done. I'm kind of driven to get this to work. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug Lee" <doug.lee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <jawsscripts@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Saturday, July 14, 2012 12:20 AM Subject: [jawsscripts] Re: Tracking a focus rectangle I've had to do stuff like this occasionally, and yes, it's a challenge to keep the code from being slow. A few ideas, assuming a simple custom highlight color is not enough - and watch out, if using that, for empty rectangles, which will not trigger anything based on a highlight color: Figure out the minimum width and height of the rectangle you want, and the smallest screen area in which it can ever reside. Also figure out the minimum width of a detectable sign of the rectangle, usually its border. Use the second of these to determine the screen area to scan, then write code to scan across horizontal or vertical lines in that space, as far apart as dictated by the answer to the first question, and only checking as many pixels as required based on the answer to the third question. Once you find a rectangle edge, either trace round it to find the others or repeat the same trick in the other direction across your screen space. Of course if you find the four walls of your rectangle you can mathematically determine the corner coordinates for it. Finally, you can cache the last findings and write a quick "Is it still where it was" checker, so the scans only occur when things are actively changing. A lot of work, this can be, but this sort of thing can really make some impossible-looking stuff just work. On Fri, Jul 13, 2012 at 11:23:40PM -0500, Jim Snowbarger wrote: The situation is sort of like a spreadsheet, but not in Excell, in a software design tool. It's the entities on a diagram. As you operate the arrows, you move focus to one entity or another, along prescribed paths. And, the way the program indicates focus is by moving a box around that encloses an entity. The box is, of course, indicated by alternating bands of color. Jaws doesn't track that focus change, even though Track Focus Rectangle is turned on. And, the focus object isn't moving around. And, I can't think of any place where you can specify the definition of a focus rectangle. So, I guess I'll have to search for it myself. Anyway, for some reason I don't seem to have any code around where I did this, even though I've certainly seen it before. So, I'm about to rewrite some clever code to search for that box, and know I'll have a great time doing it, even though if I were more orderly, I wouldn't have to. But, it will be a nice little short brain teaser, though when I get it done, it's going to be a dog of a performer. An old dog. So, is there a better way to approach this? You guys know any tricks I might try? Or, something obvious I've overlooked? Think twice, if it's really simple. Are you sure you wanna tell me? You know you might be depriving a compulsive programmer of his kicks. <grin> __________??? View the list's information and change your settings at //www.freelists.org/list/jawsscripts -- Doug Lee, Senior Accessibility Programmer SSB BART Group - Accessibility-on-Demand mailto:doug.lee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.ssbbartgroup.com "While they were saying among themselves it cannot be done, it was done." --Helen Keller __________� View the list's information and change your settings at //www.freelists.org/list/jawsscripts __________� View the list's information and change your settings at //www.freelists.org/list/jawsscripts